i need advice. My male is only about 3" long and appears that he cannot open his left claw, ever. whereas the right one is fine. i think he is coming up to a molt but dont know whether its due to this or whether its a disability. Any advice, would be grateful for it.

here's hoping, if not they can get along fine without a working claw there was someone either on her or bug nation that had a scorp missin the whole of its pedipalp and still managed to catch food no problem.

Binksyboy3, have you tried maybe opening it yourself or trying to encourage him to open it?

Ive tried to get him to open it, but i havn't tried myself.Im just a little worried coz ive got a female emp as well whom i think is gravid and they keep fighting then leaving each other alone and then fighting again. The problem is my male is gentle and doesn't attack her but she goes full out trying to get him. I have plenty of hides and i use coco fibre as the substrate with a bit of sphagnum moss on the top to retain moisture. He has been refusing food for about a week now whereas the female just eats and eats.

If she is gravid and she doesn't go flat again, how will i know when to feed her? Do i just feed her a cricket per week or something?

Also i would give one of them back to the shopkeeper if they keep fighting but i like them both a lot. My male is my favourite because he is calm and friendly. But i like my female a lot as well but she is quite vicious and probably gravid so im stuck there.

Just separate them. Females are known to be aggressive towards tankmates when gravid.

Also, don't worry about your male not eating. Depending on the species, scorpions can fast for months up to over a year, and males tend to be more prone to this.

There's also the possibility that your male is calm and friendly and can't open his claw because he's old. Older scorps tend to slow down before they die. My first female emp was like this -- always much calmer and more handleable than my male, but she was slowly dying. (Don't panic yet, though; it took her over a year to die.)